Wisconsin

3 quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s spring practice No. 12: Defense soars on interception-filled day

Published

11 months ago

April 17, 2025

3 quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s spring practice No. 12: Defense soars on interception-filled day

The Wisconsin Badgers had their 12th practice of the spring and their final one before Saturday’s spring showcase, where fans will get a chance to see their new-look team early in the offseason.

To say the least, it was a rough day for the offense, as the defense thrived throughout the morning, racking up highlight play after highlight play.

Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s spring practice No. 12.

Interceptions steal the day

The Badgers defense had six (yes, six!) interceptions on Thursday, as the offense had the worst day yet. To make matters worse, much of the damage came when the top teams faced off.

Senior quarterback Billy Edwards had a day to forget, throwing four interceptions, each of which was either a poor decision or a throw by the transfer. The problem? Edwards didn’t have many positive plays or a bounce-back away from the interceptions.

He airmailed a throw to the sideline for Jayden Ballard on a great play design that got him free between the intermediate and deep levels against Cover 2. He had a pass batted at the line of scrimmage. There were a few sacks on the day. There were some snap issues. And, more importantly, there weren’t the explosive plays that offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes’s offense was predicated on.

The Badgers offense has been very inconsistent through the first 12 practices of the spring, especially in the passing game. Sophomore quarterback Danny O’Neil had a few spot reps with the first-team offense on Thursday in a change, and Wisconsin also gave some second-team reps to walk-on Milos Spasojevic as a result.

The backups didn’t have much better results either. O’Neil had an interception that safety Matt Jung plucked out of the air, while Spasojevic threw a pick to freshman Cooper Catalano, who made a great catch.

There was just zero life for an offense that has really been looking to pick things up, although some crafty play designs continued to come out.

The biggest play of the day was when Spasojevic came in with the second-team offense, as the walk-on hit freshman wide receiver Eugene Hilton with a sweet over-the-shoulder ball that the wideout slowed down for to haul in.

But, apart from that, it was primarily a defense-dominated day with tons of interceptions.

Freshmen getting extended looks

The Badgers 2025 freshmen class had quite a few early enrollees, as nearly two-thirds of the group came to campus this spring.

There have been several players who are starting to make plays, but a few are beginning to separate themselves with chances alongside either the first or second-team offense.

Leading the way is freshman wide receiver Eugene Hilton, who has been a feature with the No. 2 offense all spring long. Now, understand that wide receivers see quite a bit of rotation, so there aren’t really any set groups at the position, but it’s notable that Hilton is getting as many opportunities as he is this early.

For the first time that I’ve seen this spring, Hilton was in there with the first-team offense for a few snaps as the Badgers rotated receivers, playing on the boundary with Tyrell Henry in the slot.

In addition, some of the freshmen offensive linemen are already getting thrown into the fire. Offensive tackle Nolan Davenport quickly ascended to the second-team right tackle spot, which he’s had to hold down as reserve tackle Barrett Nelson is out for the spring with an injury.

But, Hardy Watts has also seen some opportunities, and he was a fixture at right guard with the second-team offense on Thursday as Kerry Kodanko assumed the first-team duties while J.P. Benzschawel and Emerson Mandell did not partake in team drills.

It’ll take some time for the freshmen offensive linemen to develop, especially shape-wise, but it’s a notable step that they’re getting thrown in the fire this early.

Cooper Catalano had his best day yet, as he caught a nice jumping interception, breaking on an out-route that was thrown behind the intended target. He later also caused a fumble on wide receiver Davion Thomas-Kumpula working in space.

As the Badgers get into the fall, much of the focus will be on their developing 2024 and 2025 classes, which will be integral to the team’s success over the next few years.

Safeties continue to shine

Earlier this spring, I noted the safety room as a strength, as the group bounced back well from the loss of Hunter Wohler with some key retentions and additions.

Moving Austin Brown back to safety has provided the room with more depth, alongside returning starter Preston Zachman, while transfer additions Matt Jung and Matthew Traynor have made their marks at certain times in the spring.

On Thursday, it was Zachman and Jung’s turn to shine.

Zachman had the best day of any defender, finding his way around the football on several occasions. I charted him with three interceptions or very-close interceptions on Billy Edwards, as the safety just found a way to be around the ball and capitalize when chances were there.

Jung, on the other hand, had a sweet interception (or near interception) by breaking well on the ball, and he was constantly around the ball.

Jung is built like a linebacker at 6’3, 225 pounds, and he drives downhill to make plays at the line of scrimmage. But, he also has a nose for the football, as seen with his nine interceptions and four pick-sixes a season ago.

The Badgers safety room will definitely be tested by a tough schedule, but they’ve seemed to have found some gems in the group, which bodes well for defensive coordinator Mike Tressel’s new scheme.

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Wisconsin

Smith: DNR shares positive summary of 2025 Wisconsin deer hunting seasons

Published

12 hours ago

March 8, 2026

Press Room

Smith: DNR shares positive summary of 2025 Wisconsin deer hunting seasons

Hunters in the 2025 Wisconsin white-tailed deer hunting seasons registered more bucks than any year since 2007 and the most deer overall since 2012, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

What’s more, the harvest of antlerless deer – the key to herd control efforts – showed a year-over-year increase of 5% and the archer, crossbow, holiday, late antlerless and youth seasons all showed higher deer registrations.

“All in all, our harvest numbers were strong, the strongest we’ve seen in a couple decades,” said Ryan Haffele, DNR acting deer program specialist.

Haffele and several DNR colleagues presented the 2025 Wisconsin deer hunting season summary at the Feb. 25 Natural Resources Board meeting in Madison.

The 2025 statewide deer hunting opportunities opened Sept. 13 with the crossbow and archer (vertical bow) seasons and included a Oct. 11 and 12 youth, Nov. 22-30 gun, Dec. 1-10 muzzleloader and Dec. 11-14 late antlerless hunts.

Many deer management units also included a Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 holiday hunt and late bow seasons that closed Jan. 31.

All told, hunters had more opportunity than ever to take a deer in Wisconsin.

Their pursuit was further aided by a statewide deer population estimated at 1.82 million following the 2024-25 hunting seasons, highest on record, according to the DNR. Two consecutive mild winters helped bolster the herd in the northern and central forest zones and deer numbers in the agricultural zones have generally swelled over the last decade after the Wisconsin Legislature prohibited Earn-A-Buck regulations and the early gun hunting season for antlerless deer.

Both the central and southern agricultural zones showed record high deer populations, according to the 2024 post-hunt estimate by the DNR.

The Feb. 25 report was dominated by positives as hunters took advantage of the higher deer numbers and excellent late season conditions.

The 2025 results are especially impressive since the number of deer hunters has dropped by 116,640 (or 16%) in the last 25 years, according to the DNR.

The DNR data showed hunters in 2025 registered 389,481 deer, including 165,754 bucks and 173,727 antlerless deer. The totals, through the end of January, will increase when registrations on agricultural damage tags and tribal harvest are added in the coming weeks.

The seasons started out strong with 8,480 deer registered in the two-day youth hunt, 18% higher than the five-year average.

The only season in 2025 that didn’t show a year-over-year or five-year increase was the nine-day gun hunt. Hunters registered 183,094 deer in the season, which has the most annual participants and contributes the biggest harvest. But hunter effort over the last three days was hampered by a heavy statewide snowstorm and the deer kill fell 4% from the previous year.

Once the storm passed, though, the snow cover persisted through December and helped hunters see and track deer in the muzzleloader, late antlerless and holiday hunts, Haffele said.

In the muzzleloader season, hunters registered 11,911 deer, 68% higher than the five-year average, while the total in the four-day December antlerless season was 10,591 deer (30% higher) and holiday antlerless deer hunt was 11,278 deer (77% higher).

Haffele said the 2025 data helps illustrate an important aspect of deer management.

“It helps tell the story of how a lot of our hunting harvest can be condition-based,” Haffele said. “When conditions are good we still have the capacity to get out there and have excellent harvest conditions. But the counter of that is when conditions aren’t as good it can also bring down our harvest, which we don’t have control over most of the time.”

Continuing a trend since 2014 when crossbows became legal for all hunters regardless of age or physical ability, the crossbow season kill of 70,050 was the highest on record.

But deer registered by archers (users of vertical bows) also was higher in 2025. The archer kill of 41,461 was 5% higher than the five-year average.

The 2025 seasons were the first with a hybrid system of deer management units. Most of the state uses county lines to designate DMUs, but last year the northern forest and central forest zones were rearranged into habitat-based units.

While it will take a few more years of data to allow direct comparisons, Haffele said the first year results looked good.

Among counties or deer management units, Marathon County showed the highest deer registration, with 11,876 deer, followed by Waupaca (10,525), Shawano (9,798), Vernon (9,344) and Dunn (8,972).

License sales: Sales of deer hunting licenses continued a trend, albeit very slightly, in the negative direction. In 2025, the DNR reported sales of 792,969 deer hunting licenses (gun, crossbow and archer combined) a 0.1% decline from 2024. The gun license sales of 552,362 were down 0.5%.

Among the licenses, the DNR reported 40,348 were sold to “new hunters,” a 0.6% decrease from 2024.

Hunting incidents: Two firearm-related incidents were reported during the nine-day gun season, including one fatality, according to the DNR.

The last decade has shown an average of five incidents for the nine-day season. Six of the last 10 have had no fatal incident.

CWD positives increase: As of March 4, the DNR had tested 18,232 deer in Wisconsin for chronic wasting disease and 2,035 (or 11.1%) were CWD-positive, according to the DNR. The number of CWD-positive deer and percentage of positive tests are highest since the state began testing for the disease in the 1990s. It continues a trend toward increasing number of infected deer and higher prevalence rates in the affected areas.

Under the current “monitor only” strategy in Wisconsin, the trajectories of higher prevalence and geographical spread of CWD are expected to continue in the state, according to wildlife disease experts.

The fatal disease was first identified in the 1960s in captive deer at a Colorado research facility. It was documented in Wisconsin for the first time in deer killed in the 2001 hunting season near Mount Horeb. It has since spread to more than half of the state’s counties.

Although CWD has not been proven to cause illness in humans, the Centers for Disease Control and other health agencies recommend humans not consume meat from a CWD-positive animal. The DNR provides free, voluntary CWD testing on deer samples by hunters and others.

Deer donation higher: Hunters provided 1,331 deer to the state’s deer donation program in 2025, a 21% year-over-year increase, according to the DNR.

The number is expected to rise since about one-fourth of processors hadn’t filed reports as of Feb. 25. They have until March 31 to do so.

The program had 58 participating processors in 41 counties for the 2025 deer hunting seasons. In another optimistic note, the number of processors increased for the second consecutive year, Haffele said.

The program relies on hunters to donate deer. Venison from donated deer is processed and distributed to food pantries across the state. Since the program began in 2000, hunters have donated over 100,000 deer, which were processed into over four million pounds of ground venison, according to the DNR.

“Overall a lot of great, positive things coming out of the 2025 deer seasons that we hope will set us up for a successful 2026,” Haffele said.

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 results for March 7, 2026

Published

24 hours ago

March 8, 2026

Press Room

Wisconsin Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 results for March 7, 2026

The Wisconsin Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 7, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from March 7 drawing

17-18-30-50-68, Powerball: 24, Power Play: 3

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from March 7 drawing

Midday: 9-3-6

Evening: 4-0-4

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from March 7 drawing

Midday: 8-0-7-4

Evening: 4-7-8-4

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning All or Nothing numbers from March 7 drawing

Midday: 05-07-09-10-11-13-14-15-16-17-18

Evening: 01-03-04-05-07-08-11-14-16-18-19

Check All or Nothing payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Badger 5 numbers from March 7 drawing

01-07-11-22-28

Check Badger 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning SuperCash numbers from March 7 drawing

09-13-14-31-36-37, Doubler: N

Check SuperCash payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Megabucks numbers from March 7 drawing

06-07-09-19-31-34

Check Megabucks payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

Prizes up to $599: Can be claimed at any Wisconsin Lottery retailer.
Prizes from $600 to $199,999: Can be claimed in person at a Lottery Office. By mail, send the signed ticket and a completed claim form available on the Wisconsin Lottery claim page to: Prizes, PO Box 777 Madison, WI 53774.
Prizes of $200,000 or more: Must be claimed in person at the Madison Lottery office. Call the Lottery office prior to your visit: 608-261-4916.

Can Wisconsin lottery winners remain anonymous?

No, according to the Wisconsin Lottery. Due to the state’s open records laws, the lottery must, upon request, release the name and city of the winner. Other information about the winner is released only with the winner’s consent.

When are the Wisconsin Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 10:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
Super Cash: 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
Pick 3 (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
Pick 3 (Evening): 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
Pick 4 (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
Pick 4 (Evening): 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
All or Nothing (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
All or Nothing (Evening): 9 p.m. CT daily.
Megabucks: 9:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
Badger 5: 9:00 p.m. CT daily.

That lucky feeling: Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

Feeling lucky? WI man wins $768 million Powerball jackpot **

WI Lottery history: Top 10 Powerball and Mega Million jackpots

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Wisconsin editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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Wisconsin

Purdue Basketball: Wisconsin Preview: Stats, Analytics, Analysis

Published

2 days ago

March 7, 2026

Press Room

Purdue Basketball: Wisconsin Preview: Stats, Analytics, Analysis

Wisconsin 2025-2026 Season

2/28: W – 63 – 62 vs Oregon @ Home

2/24: W – 72 – 68 vs Indiana @ Away

2/17: W – 78 – 74 vs Maryland @ Home

Position	#	Player	Class	Height	Weight	Min	Pts	Reb	Ast
Point Guard	2	Nick Boyd	Sr.	6’3”	177	31	20	4	4
Shooting Guard	25	John Blackwell	Jr.	6’4”	203	33	18	5	2
Small Forward	7	Andrew Rohde	Sr.	6’6”	195	26	6	2	3
Power Forward	32	Aleksas Bieliauskas	Fr.	6’10”	235	18	4	4	1
Center	31	Nolan Winter	Jr.	7’0”	235	31	13	9	2

Position	#	Player	Class	Height	Weight	Min	Pts	Reb	Ast
Guard/Wing	0	Braeden Carrington	Sr.	6’5”	200	18	9	3	1
Power Forward	22	Austin Rapp	So.	6’10”	238	22	9	4	2
Center	23	Will Garlock	Fr.	7’0”	243	7	1	1	1

Nolan Winter went down with an ankle injury in Wisconsin’s 78-45 demolition of Maryland. He’s listed as day-to-day. If he’s unable to answer the bell, look for Bieliauskas to move to center and Austin Rapp to move into the starting lineup at power forward.

(Per KenPom.com – National Rank / Big 10 Rank in ())

Adjusted Efficiency: 124 (18) – Big 10 Only: 118.6 (4)

Adjusted Tempo: 69.1 (91) – Big 10 Only: 67.7 (3)

Average Possession Length: 17 (105) – Big 10 Only: 18.1 (7)

Effective Field Goal%: 54.2 (64) – Big 10 Only: 53.7 (9)

Offensive Rebound%: 29.7 (214) – Big 10 Only: 28.8 (6)

Three Point%: 35.7 (80) – Big 10 Only: 32.8 (8)

Two Point %: 54.9 (61) – Big 10 Only: 54.2 (10)

Adjusted Efficiency: 102.1 (48) – Big 10 Only: 112.3 (9)

Adjusted Tempo: 69.1 (91) – Big 10 Only: 67.7 (3)

Average Possession Length: 17 (105) – Big 10 Only: 18.1 (7)

Effective Field Goal%: 54.2 (64) – Big 10 Only: 53.6 (12)

Offensive Rebound%: 29.7 (214) – Big 10 Only: 34.9 (18)

Three Point%: 35.7 (80) – Big 10 Only: 32.8 (8)

Two Point %: 54.9 (61) – Big 10 Only: 54.2 (10)

I usually find a stat mismatch that favors Purdue in this section, but I feel like this is a “throw the stats out the window” type of game. The Boilermakers have rolled over at home against the top of the Big 10 this season. Needless to say, that’s surprising for a group of battle-tested seniors who started the season with National Championship aspirations.

The “Big 3” has turned into “maybe one of the three show up?” for Purdue.

Their last home win was a 93-64 beatdown of the Hoosiers, where Braden, Trey, and Fletcher all played up to their preseason expectations, and the game was never in doubt. That’s what I’m looking for in their last game in Mackey. Things haven’t gone the way we hoped this season, but a win against Wisconsin would give the Boilermakers some much-needed momentum heading into the Big 10 Tournament.

If all three Purdue seniors show up, this game shouldn’t be close, especially considering….

If Winter can’t go, or is significantly hindered by a bum ankle, it’s going to be tough sledding for the Badgers today. As a veteran ankle sprainer, I wouldn’t be super optimistic about his chances of being anywhere close to 100%, he’s in the “oh man, this thing is throbbing, swollen, and purple” part of the recovery process. Throw in the fact that Wisconsin has the Big 10 tournament looming, and I’m doubtful that the Wisconsin big man plays in this game.

The Battle of the Backcourt

Nick Boyd and John Blackwell have been outstanding this season. That’s not great for a Purdue team with only one guard capable/interested in playing defense. CJ Cox will probably have to guard Blackwell because he’s too strong for Braden or Fletcher off the bounce. That, I assume, leaves Braden on Nick Boyd, and that should give everyone some indigestion. At the very least, Purdue’s senior guard needs to match Boyd’s point production because, based on all available data, he’s going to get into the lane at will and torture the Boilermakers.

Wisconsin: Prefer not to say

Looking Into My Crystal Ball

I smashed my crystal ball after the Ohio State loss. As I said above, I’d like to think that Purdue’s seniors show up today and give the home crowd a show in their last home game. That’s certainly one of the scenarios that could play out today, and it’s the one I’ll be hoping for.

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